Save Me From Insanity Rewrite
by sweet.outcast
Summary: Gaara is in a mental hospital and has been labeled a lost cause. He is given another chance to face and rid himself from his inner-demons, and perhaps even live outside the white walls. But will he drive what may be his final chance away too? AU


_**DISCLAIMER::: I do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters. Dr. Yumi Morita, however, is a character that I created.**_

_**WARNINGS::: Nothing for this chapter... maybe a curse-word somewhere...?**_

_**CHAPTER 1-Yumi's New Patient  
**_

Dr. Yumi Morita sat in front of a large cluttered desk, watching as Tsunade quickly sifted through the large stacks of files covering her workspace. The woman waited patiently, jumping slightly from the screams and other loud noises produced by the unruly patients down the hall. She nervously twirled one of her dark brown curls around her index finger. Her green eyes wandered around the room, noting that the rest of the room was no different from the cluttered desk. The room looked as though someone had started unpacking, but never found a place to put everything; stacks of books, files, paperwork, and empty boxes lined the walls. Yumi wondered how the esteemed doctor found anything in such a disorganized mess, but it seemed like the blonde woman had no troubles finding what she needed.

"I'm glad you've decided to take me up on the job offer," Tsunade began as she carefully pulled a manila folder from one of the stacks on her desk. "This will be the first time that we hire someone to look after any specific patient. We mostly hire psychiatrists to deal with trying to find medicines that will help the patient, but it seems that medicine isn't the solution to everything."

"So you're telling me you don't have _any_ psychologists amongst your staff?" the younger woman asked with surprise. She stopped twirling her hair and looked at the older woman with big eyes.

"We have a few, but they are nothing more than counselors. They are available for anyone and everyone in the vicinity. They listen and provide support to an ample amount of people. What we need at the moment are caseworkers to work with the patients that need individual attention. But before we can hire anymore, we have to prove that it will make a difference."

"So you hired me to be a guinea pig?"

"No. I hired you to give patients that have been considered 'lost causes' another chance."

The brunette thought silently for a minute, running everything through her head. She unconsciously rapped her thin fingers against her leg, something she did when she was submersed in deep thought.

"Do you have some patients picked out?"

"Actually, I have already selected a patient I'd like for you to work with. Right now, he's our most sensitive case."

"May I take a look at his records?"

Tsunade nodded and handed the manila folder over to the brunette. "The patient's name is Gaara. He is a twelve year old male, transferred here from Sunagakure Mental Institution after being there for about two years. Before admittance, Gaara was convicted of killing his father. However, it appeared that the child had a long history of emotional instability. Some neighbors even suspected Gaara of being a victim of abuse by his father, but no one had any solid proof and didn't mention anything the authorities until after the incident."

"I see," Yumi interjected, sighing and rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm guessing they admitted him into the psych ward as a way of keeping him out of juvie."

"You could say that, I suppose. The court ruled that Gaara killed his father out of self defense, but damage to his psyche was too great to ignore."

The caseworker nodded and flipped the page in Gaara's file. "The police report says that his siblings were caught in the fray and ended up in intensive care."

"Fortunately, they made a full recovery. They've been put onto the foster care system, and that's really all I know about them."

Yumi continued reading Gaara's records in silence, unconsciously nibbling on her bottom lip . "It looks like Gaara hasn't been doing to well."

Tsunade smirked and shook her head. "Gaara has been here for almost three months and hasn't spoken a single word since his admittance. The poor child is covered in scars, is uncooperative with the staff. He refuses to take any pills, and at the moment, we only have him on the standard vitamins that we give all the patients. Gaara puts up a fight every time we try to give them to him."

"So he hasn't formed a single bond with any of the staff members?" Yumi inferred, twirling another one of her brown curls around her finger.

Tsunade shook her head. "Most of the staff, especially the nurses, are terrified of him." Yumi quirked an eyebrow, curiosity peeked. "Gaara has a split personality. Ninety-eight percent of the time, the personality change is triggered by blood. But there has been an instance where extreme stress caused his personality change. It happened when during his first few days here, but he continued to lash out at some of the nurses unexpectedly. We had to move him to a more secluded part of the building to reduce the risk of another patient getting hurt."

"So you put him into solitary confinement?" the younger female questioned, obviously becoming more displeased about the situation by the minute.

Tsunade slouched back in her chair and propped her feet up on the desk. "Not quite. We allowed Gaara to leave his room during certain times of the day, in the company of a staff member of course." She paused for a moment and laced her fingers together behind her neck. "That only lasted a little over a month, however.."

Yumi sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "What happened?"

"One of our nurses was found dead in a janitor's closet near Gaara's room. She had been strangled to death. Naturally, the poor boy was the prime suspect, especially since he had been acting rather aggressive at the time. We moved Gaara again and restricted him to his room.

"The counselors don't see him anymore and neither do the psychiatrists, since he won't speak to anyone or take any medication. Only a few of our nurses will take care of him, and they only do the bare minimum. I do what I can for the kid, but there's always chaos around here so it's not much. A couple times a week, I force feed him vitamins. It's unpleasant for both of us, and I know that it's only causing Gaara to distance himself from me even more.

"I'm hoping that if someone can reach out to him and help him cope, he will eventually open up and we can start treating him. He needs someone he can learn to trust."

The twenty-five year old ran a hand through her hair, sighing sadly. "I guess I can see what I can do," Yumi finally spoke with a sigh.

The blonde woman smirked for a moment before her expression quickly turned to a frown. "Gaara has been abandoned by so many people. If you are going to take his case, I expect you to stick with it. "

The uncertain psychologist ran a hand down her face, wondering what she had gotten herself into. "I'll do everything I can, but first I am going to need a copy of his file," Yumi informed her new boss. "I am also going to need _a lot_ of time with him. For starters, I'm going to meet with him for short periods of time every weekday. I'd like to have weekends off, if that's alright." Tsunade nodded her approval. "Who is in charge of his care?"

"Starting today, you are. Like I said before, there are a few nurses who check on him and _attempt_ to take care of him. I'll inform them to listen to you. If they fail to, just let me know and I'll handle it."

Yumi smiled slightly and nodded. "That's all I need to know for now. If it's okay, I would like to meet him."

Tsunade stood up and motioned for her to follow. "Just be warned, you aren't going to get much out of him."

The younger woman tagged along behind her boss through several white hallways. "That's fine. I just want to meet him so I figure out an approach." They walked up a set of stairs and then down another hallway, stopping in front of a gray metal door.

Tsunade was just about to open up one of the doors when a frightened nurse burst out with several pills flying through the air behind her. The door closed and the two women stared in shock at the terrified woman.

"What happened?" Tsunade asked, still surprised about what had just occurred.

"I tried to get Gaara-san to take his medicine," she answered, still sounding a bit spooked. "He grabbed the Dixie cup from me and threw the pills at me."

Tsunade sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose out of frustration. "You must be new here." The nurse nodded. "I am the only one that gives Gaara his pills, okay? As you just witnessed, he's not very nice when it comes to taking medication."

"What does Gaara need medicine for?" Yumi asked, slightly confused. She turned to Tsunade and looked at her inquisitively.

"They're just vitamins." The busty woman sighed. "Like I said earlier, all the patients in the hospital take them. It's a protocol of ours, since most of the patients' immune systems have deteriorated during their time here. Gaara really needs to take them, especially if you are going to be visiting him on a regular basis."

The older woman turned her attention to the nurse. "This is Dr. Yumi Morita. She is in charge of Gaara, so anything she says, goes." The nurse nodded and stared at the brunette before quietly dismissing herself. Tsunade turned her attention back to her new staff member. "While I'm here, I'm going to give Gaara another chance to take his pills. I'll introduce you to him as well."

Yumi nodded and followed her boss into the patient's room.

"Gaara," Tsunade began, gaining the attention of the small boy sitting in the corner of his dimly lit room. His messy crimson hair barely hid his sea-green eyes and kanji sign "love" that had been tattooed onto his forehead.

The boy's cold gaze sent chills down the nervous woman's spine. So much pain and loneliness glistened in them, but another emotion swam through those pristine eyes. Hatred.

"Gaara, why aren't you taking the vitamins?" The young boy stared at the head doctor, his piercing eyes watching closely as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pill bottle. She twisted the cap off and poured the capsules out into her hand, then held them out to Gaara. "Yumi, this young woman behind me, is going to be visiting you regularly now, so you need to be taking these." The redhead stared at the vitamins for a moment before knocking them out of Tsunade's hand. She sighed and shook her head. "I really hate force feeding these to you, Gaara. You don't like it either, do you?" The twelve-year-old buried his face into his knees, curling into a tight ball to block out the intruders.

"Perhaps he doesn't like them," Yumi suggested.

Tsunade shrugged. "We've tried other brands, but he pulls the same stunts." The blonde looked at her watch and sighed. "I need to go. You can stay as long as you like, but stop by the front desk on your way out. I'd like to talk with you once more before you leave." Patting Yumi on the shoulder and mouthing "good luck", the prestigious doctor left the caseworker alone with her new patient.

Silence surrounded the pair as Gaara stayed curled up in his ball, refusing to look at the woman.

"I'm Yumi." The young doctor slowly approached her patient and crouched down in front of him. "Do you think we can become friends?" The boy didn't budge and didn't make a single sound.

"_I need to test his boundaries. Rushing into things won't get me too far, but I need to start somewhere."_

"Look, I know you don't like taking the pills, but maybe we can find a place in the middle if you cooperate." She laid a gentle hand on the boy's arm to make sure she had his attention. Gaara immediately shoved Yumi away from him, effectively removing her unwanted contact by knocking her over. The doctor looked at the child with surprise and he glared back.

"I'm sorry," Yumi apologized. "You don't like being touched." Gaara's eyes softened slightly and the grip on his legs tightened. "I won't do it again, but I expect you to at least _try _to cooperate." Sea-green eyes narrowed at the woman. She smirked and raised an eyebrow at her patient. "What's with that look? I thought my offer sounded fair. You do what you can to cooperate with my requests and in return, I won't lay a hand on you. Both of us are happy."

Gaara continued to glare at Yumi and the room entered a deep silence again. Five minutes went by before the caseworker spoke again. "You want me to leave?" His expression didn't change. "Look, I can't read your mind, hun. But I'm going to leave anyway. I just wanted to introduce myself and speak with you for a couple minutes." She slowly stood up and smiled sadly. "I'll talk with Tsunade and see if we can find an alternative to the vitamins. See you tomorrow, Gaara."

Silently, Yumi turned and left the twelve-year-old boy to himself. The woman slowly walked down to the front desk where the nurse paged for Doctor Tsunade. Yumi waited for about five minutes before the older blonde woman arrived.

"How was he?" Tsunade asked as she handed several clipboards to the nurse behind the desk.

"He behaved himself, if that's what you're inquiring about." The woman nodded. "Can we step into your office for a few minutes? I'd like to discuss some things with you." Tsunade motioned for Yumi to follow and the two women walked down the hall and into the blonde woman's office.

"What did you want to discuss?" Tsunade asked. The women sat down in their respectable chairs, looking directly at the other.

"Take Gaara off the vitamins."

Tsunade blinked at the caseworker before propping her elbows up on the table and folding her hands together. "You realize he can…"

"I know he can get sick," Yumi interrupted. "Hopefully, he won't. If he does, then he might just learn his lesson and take the damn things. Something needs to be done since forcing them down his throat isn't helping anyone."

Tsunade sighed and rested her chin on her hands. "If he does get sick, none of the nurses are going to want to take care of him. He has them all terrified and they don't like having to handle him more than necessary."

"Then I'll take care of him." The older woman raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "I have to get involved with him somehow, and settling the issue concerning the vitamins seems to be the approach at the moment."

Silence surrounded the women as Tsunade deeply considered the request. "You're willing to spend most of your day here to take care of the kid if he gets ill?" Yumi nodded and Tsunade sighed. "I'm not happy about it… but we can take him off the vitamins."

Yumi smiled. "Thank you, Doctor Tsunade."

"Don't get too used to it, though. I have protocols I have to enforce or else I'll have the 'Big Wigs' giving me nothing but hell." She paused and sat back in her chair. "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?"

"No. Not at the moment."

"Then I must be going. Thank you again for stopping by today."

"Not a problem. I just hope that there is something I can do."

xxxx

_**AN:::**_

_**Here's the first chapter of the rewrite. I'm excited about this... although I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to update. Work and the summer course I'm taking are both kicking my ass (and when school starts in about three weeks, I'm sure it'll be kicking my behind as well).**_

_**Now, I already made some plot changes. Did anyone notice? XD Cookies and my undying love to those of you who pick it out and tell me what you think about the change in a review.**_

_**I also made some character personality changes, but I'll be nice and tell you all about it. For Yumi, I'm making her more of a hard-ass. She doesn't have the highest self-esteem, but she doesn't mess around. Sure, she's nice and not really forceful. At the same time, she expects something in return... like respect towards personal space in exchange for cooperation. Gaara is under-gone some personality changes as well. For the beginning of the story, he's going to be mute. I think that this makes him appear more unpredictable and dangerous (like in the original series) while at the same time making him appear somewhat vulnerable but not to the point to where he comes across as being a depressed little wimp (like I thought he acted several times in the original version of SMFI). I want to keep his personality as close as I can to the actual series, while keeping it in check with what the circumstances call for.**_

_**NEXT CHAPTER! Yumi starts her first week on the job and nothing goes smoothly. Already uncertain about her abilities to handle the case, a picture Gaara draws near the end of the first week has her doubting herself even more. Will she come back after week one, or will Gaara have succeeded in driving away another chance at overcoming his inner-demons?**_

_**Both new and familiar readers, Please Review! **_

_**-Signing out!**_

_**-Kari  
**_


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